pH Spike in Established Tank

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

First off, sorry if this is in the wrong thread but it's the closest I saw since my Pleco is the only one involved.
But basically I got a new 55 about a month and a half ago (43 days according to Reddit), I went through a cycle which I sped up by adding old media from a filter I ran in a cycled tank for about 2 months. Last night I added in my painted turtle and pleco, they are about 4" and 7" respectively. I came home today to my pleco floating around (but still alive) so I immediately moved him to the established tank that the media came from.

my tap measures 7.2pH

The tank in question; 55 gallon, pH yesterday 6.8-7.0ph, pH tonight 8.4pH, NH3/NH4+ 0-0.25ppm, NO2- 0ppm, NO3- 0ppm, 82F

10 gallon that the pleco is in now, I know that its too small but its the only cycled tank I have; 10 gallon, 6.8-7.0ph, NH3/NH4+ 0ppm, NO2- 0ppm, NO3- 0ppm , 76

So far I added a fairly large piece of driftwood and am in the process of a 20% water change.

Last night I did a 10-gallon water change and added the driftwood back in and it dropped down to 8.2pH, and this morning it is still right about that.

 

[Rocksor]

Was your tank empty after you added the old media? How did you feed the bacteria before adding the pleco and turtle?

A cycled tank will always have nitrate in it. THe reading should not be 0ppm for nitrate (NO3) Are you using liquid tests?

The best way to measure tap PH is to let it sit out in a cup for 24 hours.

What substrate do you have in the big tank?

 

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

Was your tank empty after you added the old media? How did you feed the bacteria before adding the pleco and turtle?

A cycled tank will always have nitrate in it. THe reading should not be 0ppm for nitrate (NO3) Are you using liquid tests?

The best way to measure tap PH is to let it sit out in a cup for 24 hours.

What substrate do you have in the big tank?

Yeah, I am sure it is a liquid test. Towards the end of the cycle I added in some feeder fish, right now I have some rocks and a cave sorta thing made out of stone for the pleco to hide in that both came from the old tank 20 gallon.

 

[Rocksor]

Yeah, I am sure it is a liquid test. Towards the end of the cycle I added in some feeder fish, right now I have some rocks and a cave sorta thing made out of stone for the pleco to hide in that both came from the old tank 20 gallon.

You need to test Nitrate (NO3) again. It should not be 0ppm for a properly cycled tank. Any reading of 0ppm for NO3 (nitrate) means that you either did the test wrong or the tank is not cycled. Who made the nitrate test?

The rocks might be raising your PH.

 

[tarheel96]

I went through a cycle which I sped up by adding old media from a filter I ran in a cycled tank for about 2 months

Wait ... you ran the media in another tank for 2 months because you only had this 55 for 1 1/2 months. How long did you run this new 55 with the established filter media? Was it over a month? If so, then you would have needed to add ammonia daily to keep the filter bacteria fed. If you didn't the bacteria will be dead by now and won't convert ammonia via nitrite into nitrate.

That's why Rocksor was saying you should always have a nitrate level in a cycled tank. All that ammonia would have been converted into nitrate by now ... 3.64 ppm nitrate for every 1 ppm ammonia you would have added which is a lot.

Ammonia and nitrIte should both read 0 ppm.

--
Please let your tap water sit half-filled in an open plastic or Styrofoam cup for 24-48 hours and then test pH again. I wouldn't be surprised if it's above 8 from the cup.

 

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

Wait ... you ran the media in another tank for 2 months because you only had this 55 for 1 1/2 months. How long did you run this new 55 with the established filter media? Was it over a month? If so, then you would have needed to add ammonia daily to keep the filter bacteria fed. If you didn't the bacteria will be dead by now and won't convert ammonia via nitrite into nitrate.

That's why Rocksor was saying you should always have a nitrate level in a cycled tank. All that ammonia would have been converted into nitrate by now ... 3.64 ppm nitrate for every 1 ppm ammonia you would have added which is a lot.

Ammonia and nitrIte should both read 0 ppm.

--
Please let your tap water sit half-filled in an open plastic or Styrofoam cup for 24-48 hours and then test pH again. I wouldn't be surprised if it's above 8 from the cup.

The filter media was added a few days before the pleco went in, at that time I had feeder fish to keep the bioload up.

 

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

You need to test Nitrate (NO3) again. It should not be 0ppm for a properly cycled tank. Any reading of 0ppm for NO3 (nitrate) means that you either did the test wrong or the tank is not cycled. Who made the nitrate test?

The rocks might be raising your PH.

The test is the API Freshwater Master Kit which I've had for about a year. The rocks are all from the older tank that was running for about a year.

 

[Rocksor]

The test is the API Freshwater Master Kit which I've had for about a year. The rocks are all from the older tank that was running for about a year.

You should run the NO3 (nitrate0 test again, shaking bottle number 2 for 2-3 minutes vigorously. The contents of bottle number 2 clump up when not used once a week.